


Comforts

by mcmachine



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 03:56:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13355991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmachine/pseuds/mcmachine
Summary: While April and Harriet are staying at Jackson's house, Jackson overhears something unexpected from his ex-wife. She's told him to let her just cry, to not comfort her, but it hurts him to listen to her hurt in the same way that it always has.





	Comforts

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr. I started this off with the nightmare itself, so if you’re concerned about that triggering you for any reason, feel free to skip the italicized paragraph at the beginning. I lumped it all together to make it easy to skip over.

_The pain was agonizing, knife twisted inside of her abdomen. But she wasn’t on a kitchen table. Wet concrete was beneath her as a storm raged on, the voluminous roll of thunder and crackling of lightning across the sky sufficient enough to cover the sounds of her screaming, wailing, pleading that the pain would suddenly become too much and she would black out. But over her screaming, she can hear another loud, booming noise. Her head turns as she sees the bus exploding all too vividly feet away, and her throat burns as she screams more and more, the name of her ex-husband leaving her lips. She can only manage to look back at Ben and see him covered in blood and holding a quiet baby before she’s screaming again, and sure that she can’t stop._

Laying on the couch with two of the ridiculous throw pillows beneath his head, the crying that awoke him, he initially assumed to be that of his new daughter. Pulling himself off the couch, Jackson rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, walking across the apartment and slipping quietly into the nursery. He peers over the crib, expecting wide eyes and tiny fists, only to find her still calmly asleep, swaddled in her blankets.

“Huh.” He remarks softly. Jackson doesn’t move to lay back down, pausing there with a large smile plastered across his face, wholeheartedly in love with the new life.

The crying starts up again, louder and shriller, and that’s when Jackson realizes who it has to be. April. He quickly turns around and pulls the nursery door shut, jogging down the hallway to the bedroom and expecting the worst when he throws open the door. Eyes quickly scan the room, anticipating someone else to be there, but it’s just her, and she’s still crying out.

Pillows were thrown around the room, her body entangled in the thin sheet that hadn’t fallen off the bed yet, and she’s upside down on the bed, body twisting awkwardly as if she were in a great deal of pain. His gaze narrows for a moment to where the scar was, April having moved around enough that her sleep shirt had ridden up to show the pink battle scar she bore after the brutal c-section that she’d gone through.

“Jackson! Jackson!”

It’s not the yelling that he anticipates and the male freezes in his place for a moment as she screams his names. Ears tune themselves to make sure that their child still hasn’t awoken from the noise her mother was making, and when he hears nothing, he moves.

Jackson moves to sit down on the bed next to her, arms wrapping around her smaller frame to keep her from flailing. She doesn’t stop crying immediately and he pushes the strands of red hair stuck to her forehead back out of her face, holding her tightly against his chest, rocking her gently as if she were nothing more than a baby herself.

“Shh, April, it’s okay. I’m right here. I got you.” He’s half-expecting her to wake up and push him away, to put back up the wall that he’d watched her slowly build up, and completely relieved when she doesn’t wake up in the first place. He holds her, rocking her instead, gently rubbing her back, her arms, squeezing her shoulder, every comforting gesture that he could think of.

The process is slow but April begins to calm down, the screams turning into whimpers. His thumb wipes away the tears that have stained her cheeks and he keeps holding her, watching as the minutes tick by on the clock, until nearly half an hour has passed and she’s finally quiet and still in his arms. Careful as ever, he scoops her up and lays her down again in the correct direction, moving around the room to pick up the pillows and blanket that had been thrown aside and making the bed around her form again. He eyes the scar once more to make sure that it looks healthy still before adjusting her shirt and pulling the blankets over her.

Stepping back a brief moment to stare at her, Jackson finally lets out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding nearly this whole time. He bends over her once more, pressing a soft kiss against her forehead.

“Sleep well, my love.”


End file.
